A blog about wanderings

Tag: Nature

Scotland has some of the most photogenic landscapes I have ever seen. With a constant change of weather conditions, the lights changes constantly making it quite a photographer’s paradise.

Here is a selection of my favourite photos and moments from last June. Most of those shots were taken in the gorgeous atmospheric Highlands.

In the middle of Edinburgh rises a hill called Arthur’s seat

On the way to Applecross

Point of Stoer lighthouse, well worse the long drive to get there!

After going through rain and wind shone the sun while going up Arthur’s seat

Walking to the fairy pools

Passing through Ardarroch

After driving for a while on a tiny windy road, my friend Nicco yelled “stop the car!” which I did. We parked and looked at those deers for ages as they were so majestically beautiful. Then an old couple in a campervan yelled at me as I wasn’t park too neatly. Obviously they hadn’t noticed the deers.

In the north of the Highlands near Durness can Smoo cave be found. Part of it was curved by the sea, other part by the rivercave

Driving on the Isle of Skye

Random vista from the Highlands

The windy road to Applecross, one of the most scenic route of the Highlands

I left the lovely Sandysike house this morning after a huge English breakfast which was greatly needed.

After a few miles I stopped for coffee (yes already!) as I wasn’t too sure which road to choose. It’s amazing the effect you have when you get to a village with a fully loaded bike. People are already super friendly in the UK but when you’re a woman travelling alone and on a bike it get to another level! Kids ask me questions and people are curious about why and where. I had forgotten how social solo travelling actually is. Anyway I talked to a rather old men on his way to Glasgow by foot and two other cyclists who had come up from Cornwall.

Not long after was the border to Scotland.

The first miles were rather flat and the road not too busy. I put some music on and felt great. It quickly became steadily uphill but not as bad as yesterday. I didn’t push my bike once today!

There wasn’t much around apart from green hills, sheep, horses and beautiful stone houses.

Crossing the river near Langholm

Slow travel is the best

And after 50 miles (80km), I reached Hawick where I’m staying tonight before reaching Edinburgh tomorrow (hopefully). I feel great even though my butt hurts, I should maybe get another saddle at some point…

Hawick

I’ve learnt 2 things again today:

1/ that it’s good to start early so I take more time to have breaks and take photos

2/ that it’s wise to close my mouth while cycling so no insect get it (I wonder where the one getting in my nose end up?)

And last but not least, today’s soundtrack: “A moon shaped pool” by Radiohead, The National, Calexico, Nicolas Just and various Nova Tunes compilation.

I know nothing about bikes. Well, I know how to ride one so that’s a start. Although to be completely honest I’m not sure I’m very good at using all those gears properly yet. So when I left Penrith station today with my new old bike fully loaded, I felt a mix of excitement and “what on earth are you doing now” kind of feeling.

I’m used to riding a bike around or to work though. One day, while I was at work day dreaming about the coming 4 months trip to Europe, it came as an evidence. I needed more and I would ride a bike around bits and pieces of Europe while visiting my friends and family.

So I started reading about bikes. A lot. And I talked to my friends who’d done touring before (thank you so much for your patience and tips). And I read books and blogs. A lot.

I won’t bore you with more details about which bike to choose and why but I ended up going for a second hand Long haul trucker Surly bike that I pimped a bit.

So there I am at Penrith station this afternoon, heading towards the hills. It is nice and hot in northern England at the moment which makes the English countryside even more gorgeous.

25 miles later I made it to my first destination, Brampton (Cumbria). I have no idea where I’ll end up tomorrow but today I’ve learned 2 things:

Mountains? Yes! Nature which as you already know is pretty unbelievable here.

I spent a lot of time day dreaming about New Zealand mountains before coming down here. It is when I first drive from Christchurch towards the West coast on my way to Arthur’s Pass that I really experience those jaw dropping kind of landscape.

Railway linking the west to the east coast

Arthur’s Pass became the first national park of the south island in 1929 but has been a key route a long time before Europeans got there. Maori used to travel west that way in search of the valued pounamu (green stone used for many things such as weapons or jewellery). In 1864, Europeans discovered gold hidden around there so it suddenly became an emergency to build a road for coaches to cross over (one of those old coach can be seen at the DOC office there). the First European to go through the pass with his brother was called Arthur, thus the name of the village.

Arthur’s Pass from above

Camping around or just stopping for coffee, you will eventually meet an inquisitive visitor.

kea, a native parrot

Keas are one the ten endemic parrot species in the south island and are not to be found anywhere else in the world. They are considered very smart and their curiosity will encourage them to approach people which ironically represent a threat. What do people do when an animal comes to them? They look for things to feed then, which is pretty much the worst you could do. As a matter of fact, baby keas are taught to look for food by older experienced keas. Obviously that is very important for them to know where and how to find food in their rough alpine home otherwise they will die.

Their sometimes intrusive behaviors have led to a certain unpopularity as people happened to get their keys stolen, unattended backpack or tent inspected or even their car a tiny bit damaged. Nothing ever happened to me except for a tent lightly shaken one morning. I like knowing they are around and listening to their peculiar sound while hiking.

There are numerous day trips directly from the village and even more in the area. There are also a few really nice DOC campsites (standard and basic). My favorite was about half an hour from Arthur’s pass, a free campsite on lake Pearson, gorgeous little spot.

Admiring the scenery and enjoying the hot weather

Lake Pearson on a fine day

A rather fine campsite!

Reflection on lake Pearson

Here are a few photos of my favorite day hikes before a longer story about the one that should not be missed.

Here is a list of my 5 favorite things I got to experience in the north of the south island…Kahurangi national park is not part of it as I didn’t get to explore but will do, one day!

1 -Wander around the Marlborough Sound

If you are crossing over by boat from Wellington, chances are you will arrive at Picton. From there, you can drive to Havelock (the capital of the green lip mussel!) via the beautiful Queen Charlotte drive. Then you can follow the road up to Okiwi Bay and the French Pass.

Okiwi Bay

Geraldine on the pier at Elaine bay

Beautiful jellyfishes around

And look who showed up swimming around…

2 – Walk or kayak in Abel Tasman park

Ok ok, everybody knows that but it is truly beautiful, even though yes, I can’t lie, it was heavily raining pretty much all day when I was there with my dear friend Geraldine. Also it’s one of the cheapest spot in the country to hire kayaks and probably one of the most beautiful as well. Even under pouring rain, you could see the bottom of the water that was crystal clear.

Hello look at us having fun

3 – Go spend hours observing the life of a seal colony at Ohau Point, Kaikoura

Kaikoura is a little town between Picton and Christchurch. It doesn’t really have much but a nice 2 hours walk around the Peninsula…

Kaikoura peninsula walk

…BUT! if you drive about 15 minutes north, there is a place you should absolutely not miss. It is called Ohau Point and it truly amazing because this is what you get to see:

Check out those baby seals!

4 – Get inspired by fascinating Christchurch

You will be surprised by the biggest city of the south island. First because even years after the bad earthquakes, it is still being rebuilt. Second because it feels like a real effort has been made to distract people from the damages by being overly creative with street art at each corner.

Wizard walking around

Trompe l’oeil

Keeping what is still standing

Cute fences

Remains of the cathedral

5 – Do visit the old French settlement of Akaroa

Not because it’s fun to read French everywhere but because it’s a pretty cool drive over the hills and the Peninsula has a very special atmosphere.

Random street in Akaroa

Onuku farm, a pretty amazing cosy place to stay. High on a hill, you can stay in a room, camp or even better stay in those little huts called stargazers.

I once read on a t-shirt somewhere « the best ideas come while walking ». I just spent 3 days on my own, walking through Costa Rican mountains, I had time to think. A lot of time.

I have been travelling around for four months now and one of the first thing people ask me, even before asking me where I am from or what my name is, is “are you on your own?” It seems to trigger many people’s curiosity to see a woman travelling alone, whether It is in Europe, in the United States or in Costa Rica. When the answer is “yes, I am”, I observe two kinds of reaction. Some people treat me like some sort of super hero, other like a poor lonely thing. That surprises me since I don’t consider myself as one or the other and it gets me thinking.

There are two things that I highly appreciate when travelling alone. One thing is the solitude. I find this word very interesting in English. The notion of time seems crucial to define it, a short-term solitude being a positive thing, while a long-term solitude leads to loneliness. We don’t have that differentiation in French, and “solitude” is used for both solitude and loneliness, and as far as I know, bears negative connotations. So when I went back to my hotel, I googled it. The first hits are about personal development and learning how to love yourself, then comes dating website and forums. Interesting, isn’t it?

The Wikipedia definition of solitude in English says that as far as health is concerned, complete isolation leads to distortions of time and perception. My case is not that bad, but travelling does affect your notion of time. Everybody has experienced loosing tracks of the days of the week while on holiday. That brings me to the second thing I enjoy while travelling, which is taking my time, not jumping from one city/country to another. Many tourists like me go on a Central America tour in a couple of weeks, sometimes a month or more. I considered doing that myself, but quickly forgot about it. I wanted to take it slowly, I like to slow travel (sometimes to the extreme, like living in Norway for four years, still don’t know how that happened!). This is somehow a luxury, since most people don’t have the freedom to take months off to travel (then again, I can argue with that), but as far as I am concerned, I find it extremely frustrating to not have/take the time to get to know a place and its people. You can’t sum up a country and even less a culture in a week time. To me, travelling isn’t about “doing” a country, but actually trying to learn and understand in order to put things in perspective.

That’s how I came up with the idea of slowlitude. What is nicer than taking the time? Taking the time to walk slowly on your own through unknown places and listen to whatever is going on around you, whether it is people chatting in a café or birds flying around you in a forest? “Freedom is considered to be one of the benefits of solitude” says Wikipedia again, I would say freedom is one of the benefits of slowlitude! Have you experienced that before?

A few kilometers north of San José, the capital city of Costa Rica, there is a big national park called Braulio Carrillo, from the name of a former president, not a very romantic story I concur. Every year people get lost in those mountains covered by a dense primary forest. There are several volcanoes there that haven’t been awake for thousands of years. The more accessible one is called Barva, and offers nice hikes from a crater lake to another at about 3000 meters above sea level. I first went hiking through an area close to San Isidro de Heredia (1500m high), and went back to hike to the Barva volcano.

What really strikes me anywhere I go in Costa Rica is how fast the climate and thus the landscape vary. I am unfortunately not a forest specialist but from what I understood, when hiking at lower altitude like, you walk through a rainforest, so thick that sometimes you can’t see much through the dense foliage. You see all sorts of plants; kind of like those you buy at ikea to fill in the living room corners but which die after a few months for “some reasons”. Here in their natural habitat they are several meters high. Most animals are nocturnal so you don’t meet them very often but you do hear sounds of life and I always feel that even though I don’t see them, they are watching me penetrating their home.

At higher altitude though, it’s a different story. You go from steep trails through the cloudforest to flatter areas covered by grass, cedar and pine trees. You might as well be hiking in the Alps! Even the houses look different and the cows are fatter and look happier to chew high quality grass (it’s very wet there). Just the journey to the ranger station is worth the trip. If you’re lucky enough, the whole Central Valley is at your feet, you can even have glimpses at the Pacific Ocean. I was there at 6.30am (yes I was!) and the weather was very nice. (By the way, another thing that surprised me here is that all year round, the sun set around 5.30pm and rise around 5.30am, so weird when you’re used to French or, even worse, Norwegian seasons!). But as expected in this area, it didn’t last very long and clouds quickly surrounded the summit of the volcano. Despite his high level of biodiversity, it is one of the least visited park in the country, which makes it even nicer to visit!

Among the far too many books I am carrying around there is one I particularly love. Like, you know, when you enjoy reading a book so much that you don’t read it very often because you don’t want it to end. This book is written by an English woman, Jay Griffiths and is called Wild, A Elemental Journey. As you can expect from the title, she writes about her diverse experiences while travelling, always linking nature to people to linguistic and many other subjects. At some point, she mentions a Danish philologist called Otto Jespersen who came out with the concept of langscape to compare two languages that are very dear to me, English and French. She writes :

« The desire to tame what was wild (…) included a desire to tame the wildness of all languages, even the languages of empire. Philologist Otto Jespersen, in 1905, used land images to contrast French and English. French, he said, was like the formal, regulated gardens of Louis XIV, in contrast to the wild and open commons of the English langscape, “laid out seemingly without any definite plan, and in which you are allowed to walk everywhere according to your own fancy without having to fear a stern keeper inforcing rigorous regulations”.

Languages are fun. You get to think in a different way when you speak another language because you can rarely express yourself with the same words and expressions you would use in your mother tongue (more about the schizophrenia it involves later). English is a wild language. Minds are wild too, thoughts are expressions of your inner self to yourself. You can’t really plan your thoughts yet you can somehow tame them by choosing the language you want to think in, very often depending on what you think about. My thoughts are alternatively in French, English, sometimes Norwegian and more recently Spanish . Blogs are expressions of thoughts. Welcome to my langscape!